As the NFL’s media landscape shifts faster than ever—from its continued foray into streaming to its new stake in ESPN—few sports executives are juggling more change than Hans Schroeder, the NFL’s E.V.P. of media distribution. He’s steering the ship of the NFL’s domestic and international media rights—from billion-dollar broadcast deals to experimental (and uber-successful) partnerships with the likes of Netflix, Amazon, and YouTube.

At our recent In the Arena sports media conference in New York, Hans joined me onstage to discuss how the league is preparing for its next round of media negotiations, what the streaming era portends for the Sunday model, why traditional broadcasters are still essential to their business model, how international games could evolve into the NFL’s next premium package, and much, much more. As always, this excerpt has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

John Ourand: A lot of new responsibilities fell to you after Brian Rolapp left for the PGA Tour. How has your job changed?

Hans Schroeder: Increasingly, the nature of media is one where the learnings and evolutions away from linear to digital are applicable to any market in any place. We saw this with Netflix, we’ve seen this now with YouTube—for the first time, partners are looking for global rights, and that global aspect is bringing us together in a different way. At some point, we’ll be entering the next phase of discussions and negotiations with our partners. We’ve been at the center of that, overseeing the deal side domestically, but now we’re really pulling in all the licensing we do across media, beyond just the live games. We have one central group thinking about how and where to deploy our rights across all media, all countries, everywhere. I think it’s a real opportunity to be more efficient going forward, and better align with the work we need to do to make sure we have the best plan when we start deciding on what those future partnerships look like.

The rights go through 2032, and there’s an out in 2029. The commissioner has said he’s willing to go early, and the executives I’ve talked to say the same thing. Why aren’t we talking, like, tomorrow? Is there a possibility of that?

We’re always talking to our partners. To be clear—and maybe a little bit more precise with the commissioner’s comments, because I think some of them got misconstrued—he said, It could be as early as next year. He didn’t give a definitive that it’ll happen. But from our perspective, we’re always ready whenever our partners want to talk. We’re happy to talk to them and engage, and we want to listen. We’re always smarter to hear what our partners and non-partners have to say. There’s a lot of interest in the NFL, and we’re incredibly fortunate about the place and position and interest in our content. As we’ve seen over previous cycles, the more we can listen and be smarter about the landscape and potential opportunities, it’s going to let us have those conversations at the appropriate time, in the best way. So we have this marker out there, for after 2029, but there’s no need to wait for it. And I think we’ll be ready when the time comes.

With streamers like Netflix, Peacock, Paramount+, and the ESPN app, is there a new way to imagine the types of packages and how you sell them?

Absolutely. The way it works now is, every game, all 272 regular season games, are free agents. They can go anywhere. As we’ve expanded—more Thursdays, more early games, more international games, late-season Saturdays—that flexibility to take every one of those 272 games and put it in its right home has been huge for us. You’ve seen the growth in viewership since we’ve done these new deals. Nobody really talks about that, but flexibility is a huge driver for us. The whole idea of how we regionalize and distribute on Sunday afternoon is largely tied to how the broadcast infrastructure works. As we look out, does that stay, does that evolve with a more digital partner? I think there’s going to be a lot of different interest and opportunities for us. Broadcast is always going to be really critical for us, because it’s still so wide-reaching, but there’s going to be ways in which the platforms and interest we have gives us different options to consider.

Do you currently have enough games to create a new package with the international rights?

That idea’s been floated around and it makes a lot of sense. There’s not another natural window to play games. We can’t play on Fridays and Saturdays from the second weekend in September through the second week in December because of the Sports Broadcasting Act. We want to continue becoming more of a global sport. That’s critically important to us. A lot of those time slots, particularly in Europe, fall into those early windows. Those games also allow us to get into other parts of Asia, which typically don’t get games in great viewing hours. So [the international games] actually become primetime games in Asia, which we’re excited for.

You oversaw the deal that sold the NFL media assets to ESPN in exchange for 10 percent of the network. Why did you like that deal?

We all see the continued pressure on pay TV. For us, this was about how we make NFL Network stronger going forward. This idea came to life alongside ESPN and their focus on launching ESPN Unlimited, which led to the opportunity to partner with them, add NFL Network into their portfolio of ESPN channels, and tap into the incredible production and investment that they make in NFL content—and then, through that, potentially add not only more distribution on pay TV, but also more distribution on digital. It was a win-win for all things.

On MLB’s salary cap idea: “It feels like the baseball owners might be some of your good sources, because you really came off as a complete shill for them on Peter Hamby’s The Powers That Be podcast. Baseball had more different champions than the three other sports over the last 20 years, yet you say it has the least parity.” —A podcast listener

A vote to send Manfred down to the J.V. this week: “Major League Baseball has lost its mind. It’s trying to turn the World Series into the Super Bowl by having musical performances before the game with Pharrell and midgame with the Jonas Brothers. Baseball enthusiasts are not interested in this dumb sideshow. We love the purity of the sport. I hope they stop this nonsense.” —A Varsity subscriber

Have a great weekend. See you Monday.

John

This issue was assembled with the help of Curtis Rowser.